By TESSY OKOYE
Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Love is blind, so goes the saying. Indeed, love could sometimes be cruel, even to the purest of hearts and those with good intentions. For Celestine Ezenabu, love wasn’t only blind, it has got him partially blinded after he reportedly lost an eye in his quest for a wife.


For giving his heart to a woman he courted for years before tying the nuptial knot, and for showering her with care and material gifts, the man said he was paid back in a most dastardly manner by his in-laws. He was beaten black and blue, eventually losing an eye in the process. And his ordeal took place, while the his wife watched.

His wife, Francisca, however, described his story as a tissue of lies. “Celestine is an opportunist and a fraudster”, she said.

Indeed, he cut a pitiable sight that afternoon as he walked into Daily Sun newsroom. With his right eye closed, everyone knew all was not well with the young man. And as he narrated his story, you could not but feel a measure of pity for the unfortunate victim.

In the words of this man, who claimed to be a business man, luck as well as the goddess of love have been unfair to him by ‘blessing’ him with a woman who not only caused him a permanent pain, but shattered his dreams to travel abroad in search of greener pastures.

Ezenabu said he would forever curse the day Francisca Okeke came into his life and turned his day into night, marring the course of his life.

According to Celestine, who said he had just put finishing touches to his plans to travel abroad, he met Francisca in 2005 and financed her through a programme at a Teacher Training College in Lagos. They reportedly got married on January 3, 2007. He, however, noted that trouble started when he decided to nurture his young home and thus, stopped the largesse, which he had always doled out to his in-laws.

Said he: “I was the person who trained her in school, after which I got a job for her in a school. Initially, our major problem was with the mother, who was bent on dictating to her daughter how to live in her matrimonial home.

She had to stay with her mother for a while after we got married, because we had accommodation problems. When I finally got an apartment and asked her to move in, she refused. The problem also escalated because my in-laws were not enjoying the regular cash and material gifts that I usually lavished on them. I actually took that action because I thought it was high time I settled down to face reality as a married man and stop fending for grown up men”.

But that decision did not go down well with his wife and in-laws, he stated, saying they conspired and unleashed terror on him and blinded one of his eyes in the process.

A string of crises eventually led his wife into moving out of his house in 2007.

Narrating the event of that dark day in his life, Celestine disclosed that his wife suddenly came to his apartment one morning earlier in the year and hurriedly left before he could find out her mission. Out of curiosity, he followed, only to see her across the street, where she beckoned on him to come.

Hear him: “On March 16, 2008, while I was trying to sleep after a vigil, my wife came from nowhere, peeped into my room and left. When I went outside to know what the problem was, I saw her across the street, where she asked me to follow her. But I refused. She then walked up to me and asked why I refused to obey her. Before I knew what was happening, four of her brothers, Ifeanyi, Ikechukwudi, Chukwudi and Obinna came out from nowhere and ordered me to follow them to the police station”.

The partially blind man said since he did not know what his crime was, he pleaded with his wife and her brothers to allow him dress properly and lock the door to his room. He said that to his surprise, they all followed him to his apartment. While inside, Francisca reportedly went straight for her estranged husband’s international passport and other travelling documents.

“I did not react when she took my travelling documents; I was bent on obeying them till we got to the station. But when I made a passionate plea to them to allow me to lock my apartment properly, I received blinding slaps one after the other from the three of them. Ifeanyi and Ike held me down, while Chukwudi continuously hit me in the right eye. It was during their onslaught that my eye started bleeding and the pupil fell out”, he narrated..

Ezenabu told Daily Sun that the scuffle attracted the attention of his neighbours who made sure his wife and her three brothers were arrested and detained at Festac Police Station. He was later taken to Ajeromi General Hospital for treatment. But that effort was like pouring water into a basket as the deed had already done. The young man had lost the use of his right eye.

“My whole world came crashing down when I was told that I would never see with one of my eyes”, he said in asad voice.

He noted that numerous trips made to hospitals across the state did not yield any result, as ophthalmologists always ended up giving him the same sad verdict.

“Since the incident, we have visited many hospitals, including St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos Island, with no hope that I would ever regain my sight. When the matter was charged to court and it came up for hearing, my in-laws appealed for an out of court settlement. Since the court granted them bail, they have been exhibiting a lackadaisical attitude towards my plight. They did not respect the agreement we reached, neither did they deem it fit to honour numerous invitations made to them by the police”, he complained.

Celestine confessed that life has not been easy, as he can no longer work to fend for himself owing to the unbearable pains that pierce through his head every moment. He said he only wanted his ex-wife and her brothers to accept responsibility for their actions and compensate him for the irreparable loss he suffered during the attack.

“Right now, I am partially blind. I can no longer see with my right eye. My business has collapsed because of this problem. I have been living on my savings, which is gradually depleting by the day. I sell and repair faulty electronic gadgets, but I can’t embark on such venture with one eye. I always experience excruciating pains in my head. Moreover, who would want to give his electronics to a one-eyed man”, he asked rhetorically.

Flashing back to when he met Francisca, Celestine blamed himself for not heeding the warning of his friends and family members. “Life has been like hell since the incident happened”, he cried. “I have also become withdrawn and isolated. I curse the day I met that girl. She has always brought bad luck to me from the beginning. She is a harbinger of evil. Five days after I met her in 2005, I was knocked down by a trailer. It was as if God was warning me, but I was stubborn or too naïve to understand. I have also lost friends because of her. I wish I never met her.”

Asked if there were chances that he would ever regain his sight, he retorted: “I have visited four hospitals so far, and they told me that there is no remedy, unless I travel to the Northern part of the country for a surgery that would have me fitted with an artificial eye. Sometimes I walk into ditches without knowing because I have not mastered moving around with one eye”.

Asked whether he would consider taking back his estranged wife someday since, as the saying goes, love conquers all? His response flowed without hesitation. “If Francisca comes back to me, I might commit murder one day. I might just wake up one night and remember how she and her family maimed me and the rest might be history.

“I believe she is ill luck for me. She portends evil and I don’t wish to remember that we ever shared a bond. They have been playing games with my life. All I want them to do is restore my sight or compensate me for the damage done to my eyes.”

When Daily Sun met with Francisca Okeke at her parent’s house at No. 14 Kudaisi Street, Olodi Apapa, the story was entirely different from that told by Celestine Ezenabu. Surrounded by parents, neighbours and friends, she narrated her own side of the story.

Hear her: “I met Celestine in 2005 when he came to buy soft drinks from my mother’s shop. We dated for three months after which he proposed to me. We fixed our traditional marriage for January 3, 2007. On the morning of the ceremony, Celestine came to my family compound in Awka-Etiti empty handed, with a story that he was robbed on his way to the village. In order to avoid the obvious shame that was about to be visited on my family, my brothers shouldered the responsibility for the wedding. My mother also borrowed him N20, 000, out of which he paid my bride price and gave the elders their entitlements. The only thing my husband-to-be brought into my family compound for the event was five cartons of 33 larger beer.

“We stayed in the village for almost three weeks because there was no money to return to Lagos. My husband (Celestine) did not make any effort to get us back to Lagos. All he did was to stay in my family house in the village where he was fed by my mother. We finally made it back to Lagos with the help of my mother.

“In Lagos, Celestine did not have an apartment and was squatting with a woman. As a newly married woman, I bore the shame and humilation of living with my parents.

“It was later that I discovered that my estranged husband had fixed another traditional marriage with one Calister on the same day we had traditional marriage. And each time I visited him where he was staying and met Calister, he would tell me to introduce myself as his sister. My parents were very supportive and because they wanted us to start our own family immediately, my aged father would always take the pains to scout for accommodation for us. But each time he found a house, Celestine would take to his heels under the pretence that he wanted to go and withdraw money from the bank. There was even a time he collected N40, 000 from me to pay for agreement and agent fees somewhere in Olodi Apapa.

“But the main problem started when he came up with a story that he needed money to clear a container sent from Austria by his brother. My elder brother borrowed him N250, 000, and he collected another N100, 000 from my pregnant niece. When it was time for him to pay back the money, he absconded. I was detained twice by the police because of the money. All attempts to get Celestine to defray his debts failed as he moved out from where he was staying. Each time I spoke with him on phone, he would tell me to wait for him at Wilmer Bus-stop and he wouldn’t show up. He did that four times.

“One day, some children told me they had been seeing Celestine in front of a house in Tolu area of Ajegunle. I went there in company of my brothers, but when he saw us, he took to his heels. The veranda of the hosue was dark and he hit his eye on an open door. Nobody touched him. We were dragged to Festac police station and the matter was charged to court. He only made one appearance in court. When the matter came up for second hearing, he was not in court. I was remanded in prison custody for five days alongside my brother because we could not immediately meet the bail conditions. We have spent over N500, 000 thousand on the case.

“Celestine is an opportunist. The people he defrauded have been giving my parents hell. I have been paying Celestine’s debts because he is nowhere to be found. Even food vendors are among his list of creditors. It’s so embarrassing that even my neighbours are not spared. Contrary to his claims that he owns a shop at Alaba International, he has no means of livelihood. I have been praying to God to help get through the problem. My parents have returned his bride price. I have left everything in the hands of God.”

Police Public Relations Officer in Lagos State, Mr Frank Mbah, confirmed the story, adding that the incident was quite pathetic.

He told Daily Sun that the matter was thoroughly investigated and those involved have since been charged to court. .


News -- CAUTION: SOME MAY FIND PICTURE DISTURBING: An eye for love ‘How I was blinded by my in-laws’ ...No, you are a fraudster, says wife

__________________
I am what I am.